ShipRecycling Pages:

29 May 2012

GMS weekly report on Indian shipbreaking industry for WEEK 21 of 2012:

The previous week witnessed the rupee
slip to consecutive lows for seven consecutive trading sessions and finish at a
historic nadir come Thursday.

Similar to the fourth quarter of last
year, the falling Rupee has seen very few end buyers even willing to come forth
and offer on available tonnage. In fact, the Rupee took such an unprecedented
fall during last week that reportedly, the Reserve Bank of India stepped in to
cull the fall.

As a result, local confidence took an
extreme knock reflective of an overall sense of uncertainty in the national
economy going forward.

However, there was moderate reprieve
this week as steel prices finally showed marginal signs of improvement as the
week ended, with some gains made following the dramatic falls of several weeks
ago.

However, as long as the currency
remains in turmoil, buying is expected to remain slow for some time. Certainly,
a shortage of candidates at the shorefront has been noticeable over the past
couple of weeks and it could be that a slowdown in the supply of tonnage brings
with it a pickup in prices post monsoon.